Budapest Does Not Oppose Sweden's Membership in NATO - Ratification of the Application Is a "Purely Technical Issue"
Hungary supports Sweden's membership in NATO. The government's ratification of the application remains a "purely technical issue".
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó posted this on Facebook on Tuesday, July 11.
He made this statement after Turkey agreed to unblock Stockholm's accession to the North Atlantic Alliance.
On June 29, 2022, NATO officially invited Sweden and Finland to join the Alliance. The day before, Turkey, Finland, and Sweden signed a trilateral memorandum of understanding. On April 4, 2023, Finland officially became the 31st member of NATO.
Sweden's accession to NATO has already been ratified by 28 of the 30 member states of the Alliance, with Turkey and Hungary remaining. Budapest slowed down the approval because it was waiting for a reciprocal step from Ankara.
Turkey refused to unblock membership, in particular, because of the issue of Kurdish communities living in Sweden. Stockholm amended its legislation to increase responsibility for terrorism and agreed to lift the arms embargo on Turkey, but Ankara continued to block Sweden's application.
Finally, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg reached a consensus and signed a trilateral memorandum stating that Ankara would support Sweden's accession to NATO.
In addition to Sweden's accession to the North Atlantic Alliance, the Hungarian foreign minister called the war in Ukraine another important topic at the summit in Vilnius.
"Hungary's position is clear: we need peace in Ukraine as soon as possible, because this is the only way to save human lives," Szijjarto wrote.
According to The Gaze, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unexpectedly announced his readiness to support Sweden's NATO membership bid after a year-long delay, but now he also received support from Stockholm for Turkey's EU membership.
The Gaze also reported that next week the Turkish parliament will ratify Sweden's accession to NATO. According to CNN Türk, the protocol on Sweden's accession to NATO "will be submitted to the Turkish parliament by the end of next week and approved."